Boulder County considering $750,000 conservation easements purchase over farm land north of Longmont

By John FryarLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
01/19/2013 08:34:26 PM MST

Updated:
01/19/2013 08:35:30 PM MST

If you go

What: Boulder County Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee holds public hearings on proposed real estate transactions, including the purchase of conservation easements that would restrict future development on 81 acres of farm land north of Longmont.

BOULDER -- Boulder County would pay $750,000 to restrict any future development on 81 acres of privately owned irrigated farm land north of Longmont, under a proposal up for consideration by the county's Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee on Thursday night.

That panel is scheduled to hold a public hearing and make its own recommendation on whether the Board of County Commissioners should buy conservation easements over the land south of Vermillion Road that's owned by Oscar and Bernice Carlson.

The land is surrounded by about 700 acres of county-owned open space, including a 76-acre parcel southwest of North 115th Street and Vermillion Road that Boulder County paid $1 million to buy from the Carlsons in November 2001, according to Parks and Open Space Department real estate specialist Mel Stonebraker.

Under the proposal up for consideration on Thursday, the 81 acres west and southwest of that 2001 county open-space purchase would remain in private ownership.

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But the county's acquisition of conservation easements over that 81 acres would eliminate any possibility that the land might someday be annexed to Longmont and become the site of future urban-scale development that's expected to take place along the north side of Colorado Highway 66, Stonebraker said.

The conservation easements would restrict the size of a current residence that's now on part of the Carlsons' property -- or any future residence that might be built on that lot -- to 3,000 square feet above grade, including any garage. Another home could be built elsewhere on the property, just north of the existing residence, but it also would have to be 3,000 square feet or smaller.

The conservation easements would allow construction of 5,000 feet of agricultural accessory buildings on the 81-acre property.

The $750,000 price tag for the conservation easements would include $110,000 worth of Highland Ditch Company water-rights rights shares the county would acquire in the transaction.

Also on the advisory committee's Thursday night agenda is a report from Janis Whisman, the Parks and Open Space Department's Real Estate Division manager, about the nearly $6.7 million Boulder County spent last year to preserve 937 acres of land and acquire water rights associated with that land, along with another $532,676 the county spent in 2012 on option payments on properties it's schedule to buy in future years.